An Outside Ally
by BoOkWoRm88424
Summary: Tom Marvelo Riddle III, son of Voldemort, raised by a death eater was imprisoned last year. During his time there he met a man named Sirius Black. Now Sirius Black has escaped and Tom is the only one who beleives him innocent. R
1. Chapter 1

The boy with the shaggy dirty blonde hair stretched as the sunlight that flowed into the room woke him. Looking around, he felt a wave of disorientation pass over him. The baby blue walls that peaked out at him from behind several boxing themed posters wasn't familiar to him in the slightest. He didn't remember falling asleep on the rough grey carpet under a few ruffled sheets. Instinctively, he started feeling around his makeshift bed, searching desperately for his wand. He knew he wouldn't have kept it too far away. After only a moment of searching, his hand curled around a familiar piece of wood, conveniently stored underneath his worn cream-colored pillow. He stared at the brown stick for several moments feeling the panic abate slowly. Once his wits had completely returned, the past came back to him as if it had never left.

Memories of the past two weeks at the McNight's house came flooding back to him. The small twin sized bed, chipped crown molding, and tan window curtains that had seemed so foreign just moments ago suddenly seemed comforting. He had gone through this same disconcerting feeling every morning he'd woken up here. It was quite exhausting. Of course he knew exactly why- it was because of Azkaban. Every time he woke up to find the sun he had to remind himself that he wasn't in that wretched prison any more. He was safe. No one was going to make him go back there. As the tension in his limbs relaxed he gradually laid back down.

He looked over at his best friend who was lying sound asleep on the twin bed that towered next to him. All he could see of the younger blonder boy was the very top of his fair blonde curls. The rest of him was covered in a mess of blankets all adorned with little red boxing gloves. The tangled mass was rising and falling rhythmically as his friend was clearly still in a deep sleep.

The former boy briefly considered waking his friend up, but decided against it. Sleep was a precious thing that should never be wasted. So instead of beginning his day, he sank back into bed and started to flip through the worn pages of a book he had recently started reading. It was called Crime and Punishment and he was finding himself enjoying the book immensely. It was strange reading muggle books. Everything about the action seemed to defy the very rules of nature. It was like admitting that there were muggles out there that had talents that he didn't. It wasn't that he harbored any ludicrous prejudices against the world's non-magical population. He had gotten over that at some point over the past three years; however, the fact remained that his surrogate father was an infamous death eater and the values that were drilled into his childhood lingered still.

He was just finishing up Part 1 of the book when a loud moan sounded from the other bed. "Toooooom?" his friend called.

"Yeah?" the boy, Tom, responded. He set the book down gently folding the corner of his page down delicately as he propped himself onto his elbows in an attempt to get a look at his friend. The other boy had rolled over, and Tom could glimpse a pair of two lazy brown eyes looking distastefully at the crack in between the curtains.

"Who turned on day time?" the boy in the bed grumbled.

"The sky did," Tom responded sarcastically. Now that his friend had awakened, he thought it was a perfect time to really welcome the day. He strained slightly to reach the curtains without rising to his feet, but the tips of his fingers reached. Moments later, light was bouncing off the walls exploring the room that had the curtain had previously been protecting. Outside the window, Tom saw the ugly urbanized factory that was located a mile or two off in the distance. They really must have slept in that day because smoke was already curling out of the steel pipes signifying that the factory had already begun business.

Scott let out a loud moan again as his head once again disappeared under a mountain of blankets. Little by little, Tom waited as his head reemerged from its dark cave, the brown eyes adjusting to the new light. "We should get up," his friend said after a minute. Then suddenly the mass of covers rumbled as a he emerged from his cave revealing his scrawny frame. His eyes were slightly crossed without the thick square glasses that usually framed his face. He moved sluggishly out of his bed and towards the bathroom. After taking a moment to get to his feet and stretch out a bit, Tom followed.

The McNight's bathroom wasn't meant to fit two people but somehow they made it work as they busily applied tooth paste to their toothbrushes. Tom's gut flipped over when he saw his reflection. He had delayed coming to the McNight's for the very reason of his appearance.

Last year, when he had been wrongly convicted of opening the Chamber of Secrets, he had been left in a crippled state. Although he'd only been in the jail for two weeks, the effect that time had on his body was unbelievable. As he had basically eaten next to nothing and hadn't exactly gotten that much exercise in his four by four cell, he could barely walk the day he got out. The sight of his gaunt colorless face and his protruding rib cage had been grotesquely cruel. Now a month later he still showed signs of the imprisonment. It was in his unusual paleness of his face and unhealthy boniness of his limbs. They said that it would get better eventually with food and rest, but clearly he needed more time to heal.

The boys headed down the stairs and into the kitchen. Down on the main level, the family's lack of wealth was more apparent. The walls were covered in a dated flowery yellow wall paper that sort of reminded Tom of a stereotypical Grandmother's house. Once, a long time ago the refrigerator had been white, but since then the groves of its bumpy texture had acquired a good amount of dirt making the entire appliance a sort brownish cream color. The electric stove had streaks of rust along the bottom, and the white paint on the cabinets was chipping away leaving the underlying wood bare. Still, attempts had clearly been made to cheer the room up a bit. Little homemade ceramic roosters took up one corner of the counter. An few nice china plates, probably inherited from a dead relative, hung displayed on the wall. And then there was also the sweet smell of bacon that hung in the air.

Standing at one of the counters was a friendly middle aged woman with straight brown hair and glasses. A white baker's apron was tied around her waste as she flipped a pancake over in a skillet.

"Hi Scott," the women said when she caught sight of her son.  
"You boys sleep well?"

"Yup," Scott replied happily taking a seat at the small four person wooden table, waiting to be served.

A moment later the women came over with a plate of pancakes and another with bacon. The bacon she placed gently in between the two boys for them to serve themselves. The pancakes, however, she served herself giving Scott three and Tom five. Scott's mom, Mrs. Ann, hadn't said anything when he'd arrived practically emaciated at their doorstep, but both she and her husband, Mr. Parker, had clearly been making an effort to help bring him back to better health.

"An owl has been sitting at our window for an hour and a half now Scott," she said as the two boys poured warm maple syrup onto their breakfast. "I took the package from it just like you said, but it won't go away." Her eyebrows furrowed in complete confusion as she stared at the docile brown bird sitting in the window.

"What was in the package?" Tom asked as he knew Scott wouldn't be of any help. The boy might be a wizard, but as his parents weren't he wasn't going to have a clue what to do with a messenger owl, especially one like this that appeared to be employed and trained.

"A newspaper," she replied skeptically.

"She's waiting for someone to pay her," Tom explained completely understanding where the confusion had come from. Scott's mom probably didn't know what the Daily Profit was. "She probably knows you're a muggle so she's being patient."

"Oh," Scott muttered. As expected, he had been puzzled too. Now that the owl's intentions were clear Mrs. Ann stood to appease it. She walked over and grabbed a pouch that had been sitting on the counter. Reaching into it she pulled out three shiny galleons and handed it to the owl- no doubt it was much more than necessary, but Mrs. Ann wasn't exactly educated on wizard money. With that the owl flapped her large wings and took off.

As Scott stood up to go retrieve the newspaper, Tom proceeded to stuff himself. He didn't even bother glancing over to see what the newspaper had said as he was far too occupied with the curiously sweet round blueberries that were scattered around his plate. It wasn't until Scott spoke up that he even gave a second thought to the package the owl had delivered.

"Tom?" Scott squeaked. His voice was laden with worry. Instinctively Tom's gut twisted in his stomach and his Oclemency walls went up (Snape had tutored him a bit last year). His dark eyes were instantly fixated on Scott. His friend's blue eyes were still on the newspaper and his eyebrows were knotted.

"It says a death eater got out of Azkaban," Scott muttered. Tom's heart started beating faster as his father's face flashed in his memory. No one had ever broken out of Azkaban before. His father had only been there for two years. It couldn't be possible for him to have figured a way out while others spent lifetimes rotting away without a hope of escape. Right?

With a shaking hand he took the paper from Scott and combed the front page over with a fearful glance. Immediately, all of his worry subsided. The face on the front page was familiar, but it wasn't that of Augustine York. Instead, written in the block type were the words BLACK IS BACK. The feeling of relief was almost as strong as the feeling of anger and confusion.

"That's impossible," Tom muttered. "Sirius isn't a death eater." His mind was reeling as his mind searched the familiar face on the cover. Everything about this man was familiar. The long black hair that fell to his waist, the hard black eyes, the dirt streaked face, everything except for his expression. The expression that adorned his face in the picture wore was one of a mad man, and Tom would know he was raised by one. Sirius Black was screaming in the picture, yelling words that didn't make sense coming of his lips. This wasn't the Sirius Tom had met.

"You know him?" Scott asked going pale. "On a first name basis?"

Tom nodded slowly and glanced quickly towards Mrs. Ann. She was turned breaking an egg over a pan completely oblivious to the exchange between the two boys. "He was in the cell next to me when I was at Azkaban," Tom whispered. "He never said what he did, but he wasn't one of them."

Scott bit his lip deep in thought, "Says here he murdered like twelve people!" he said reading the article aloud. "Something about being a traitor too. This isn't really helpful you know. It doesn't go into that much detail." Tom took the paper back from Scott and scanned small type.

_Sirius Black broke out of Azkaban yesterday at precisely 7:04 pm. His absence was noticed when Mr. Harvey Hampton, the warren, made his daily rounds to find Black's cell open._

"_This is an absolutely unforgivable," Hampton said. "I blame it completely on lack of vigilance by our dementors. It is completely unacceptable."_

_How Black managed to escape is unknown, but all wizards and witches are to be on high alert as Black is a known follower of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Black was jailed on charge of twelve cases of murder in the first degree. Eleven of which were all unsuspecting muggles…_

The rest of the article went into more ambiguous facts on the case. It seemed as if nothing here was concrete. They didn't even list any of the people he murdered. Nothing here proved anything to Tom that would lead him to believe that his time with Sirius was a lie. When he sat in that cell Sirius recognized something that most of the inhabitants didn't- the line between right and wrong. A practiced death eater would have lost this distinction ages ago.

Suddenly his mind was racing back to a single moment. It was towards the end of his two-week stay and he had been at the very edge of delirium. After his release he had tried to suppress these memories, but this one sentence stood out in his mind clearly now.

"He said he was trying to get out," Tom muttered.

"What?" Scott asked confused.

"He said he was going to escape. I think he said good-bye to me. Then I got out first," Tom explained. Then he made the jump to the next conclusion. "I think he was wrongly convicted in the first place."

"How come?" Scott inquired pushing his thick square glasses up further on his nose. The expression on his friends face was one of doubt, but Tom knew the boy well. If he swore to it, Scot would believe him.

"I don't know," Tom answered honestly. "Just a gut feeling."

Scott nodded. Not a moment later did another owl fly through the already open window. On the kitchen table it dropped two letters with green ink on the front. It was obvious what they where even before they had read the letters. With that both boys grabbed at the letters and tore at their seals, thoughts of the upcoming school year fresh in their head.

* * *

A/N Hey everybody. So before you go on you should know that there are two prequels to this story (although if you ask me, my writing quality in the previous two aren't up to par with this one). It isn't necessary for you to read the first two to understand this one. So I hope you like it :)

(reviews are greatly appreciated *cough**cough*


	2. Chapter 2

Today Tom would step onto the train for the first time and arrive at Hogwarts like a normal student. It was strange to think that technically from this point on he was sort of like a normal student. He left for on the train and would be coming back on the train, no lengthy trials involved. Of course for this to happen he had to be sent to Azkaban for two weeks. When he got out Fudge was so humiliated that he personally ordered Barty Crouch (who had tried to put Tom in Azkaban permanently countless times) to stop harassing Tom.

Tom was even allowed to bring magical things to Scott's over the break this time around (previously he had been forbidden as he was 'dangerous' and 'needed to be kept under close observation). The one down side to leaving with so much stuff was having to carry everything back. Thus he struggled with his current load as they made their way to platform nine and three quarters.

Scott was strolling next to him with his own mountain of equipment. His friend was burdened with even more thing than Tom as he had more emotional attachment to knickknacks Tom would never consider bringing to school with him. This year Scott's things were topped off with a large owl cage with a dark black owl that was looking viciously around the train station.

"Stop that Jax. People are staring," Scott said nervously to the bird. It's beady eyes moved over slowly fixating themselves on Scott now. It was quite creepy.

"I told you to get the other one didn't I?" Tom muttered. The two boys had visited Diagon Alley the other day. Scott's parents had surprised him by bringing them into the pet shop and telling Scott to pick out an owl. His parents weren't exactly the richest people in the world, so the fact that they were letting him buy an owl was huge. Apparently they wanted a better way to communicate than borrowing some of Hogwart's professional owls that had this tendency of getting lost.

Tom had tagged along examining different birds and trying to help pick out an appropriate one. Well of course Scott, being somewhat of a humanitarian, wanted to pick out one of the owls that the other kids clearly weren't going to buy. This included Jax, who had managed to scare away every possible buyer, and another owl that had been pre-owned. The other owl had seemed to be in good enough shape, and had a decent disposition. The wizards shopping around for new owls were simply too snooty to buy something that had been previously owned. Scott of course felt worse for Jax, who never had a home, and thought that he should buy Jax. It wasn't the most well thought out decision. Let's just say that it had been four days and the thing had bitten Tom once already.

"You provoked him," Scott said defending his owl. "I made the right choice you just have to wait and see. He'll grow on you."

"The thing has been giving you a death glare for the past fifteen minutes," Tom said incredulously, "It can't possibly be growing on you."

"He just looks that way," Scott shot back. "It is not a death glare."

"That makes me feel so much better," Tom muttered.

Scott rolled his eyes, and didn't even bother with a reply. The two boys continued in silence for a moment before they arrived at the post in between platform nine and ten. As neither of Scott's parents were able to see them off, there was no hesitation before running full speed at the wall.

Tom was only slightly fascinated by the way the muggle trains disappeared to reveal a whole new world that was distinctly magical. Everyone under 18 on the platform had carts full of wizarding objects. Parents were dressed in mismatched muggle cloths that looked ridiculous even Tom, who had met his first muggle at the age of thirteen. Families were congregated in groups saying their goodbyes as their children were shipped off to boarding school.

Tom felt his heart swell with happiness as his eyes feel onto the huge steam engine train that was parked in the center of the platform. This year was going to be it, the year of all years. He felt the hope surrounding him, his past was behind him, this year he would finally be normal. Heck forget him, this year would finally be normal.

"Follow me," Scott said as he pushed his cart through the crowd and towards the train. They would waste no time finding a seat. Once on the train Scott led Tom down the narrow hall poking his head into various compartments. He paused at number 4 and smiled.

"Hey Seamus, hey Dean, mind if we sit here," Scott piped. Tom didn't hear the response but obviously it was the affirmative as Scott disappeared into the compartment. Tom followed him to see two familiar faces. The first boy, Dean Thomas, had dark toned skin with brown eyes and hair to match. He seemed to have hit a growth spurt over the break as he was relatively tall, although he was still shorter than Tom (given Tom was 15 and Dean was 13). The second boy, Seamus Finnegan, sported sandy colored hair. He was wearing his black jumper already, although he was missing the robes that usually went with it. No doubt he would change later.

"Hey Tom," Seamus greeted as Tom ducked into the compartment. The boy had a distinct Irish accent as he spoke.

"Seamus," Tom said with a nod. Scott had already started up his usual chatter about how break was. Apparently Dean had asked while Tom was walking in.

"We spent all break boxing," Scott started. "It was great. I mean I'm not that great at boxing, but my dad's the coach and all so…"

"Yeah we did a lot of sports and stuff too," Dean said. "I played a lot of football with my family. We had neighborhood games."

"I tried playing football when I was little," Scott said. "I had some issues with coordinating my feet so I fell down a lot." Dean laughed.

"It's not all that hard once you get the hang of it," Seamus said. "You just can't think about it too much."

Tom furrowed his eyebrows very confused. "What's football?" he asked. Suddenly three pairs of eyes were on him staring as if he were stupid.

"It's this game… you play it with your feet… and there is a ball… and you kick it," Scott explained. Tom made a mental note never to ask Scott to explain muggle things as he wasn't very good at it.

"Yeah ok," Tom said. The other three boys went on talking about their muggle game and Tom pretended to listen, nodding occasionally so it looked like he was agreeing with them. He noted that after fifteen minutes of talk the train started to take off with a loud huff. At that moment, Dean and Seamus took a break from their conversation to wave their families good bye.

With that pause Tom jumped on the opportunity to change the subject. "What specials are you guys taking this year?"

"Transfigurations and Care of Magical Creatures," Dean replied. "Isn't that what everyone's doing?"

"It's what I'm taking," Seamus said.

"Me too," Scott said.

Tom nodded thoughtfully. "I'm taking Muggle Studdies and Study of Ancient Runes," he said.

Seamus laughed," no offense but you need Muggle Studdies mate." Dean and Scott joined in his laughter and Tom gave out a small smile. He was taking it for that very reason.

"I hear the that Hagrids teaching Care of Magical Creatures this year," Dean said.

"Yeah did you open the book though? It tried to eat me," he cried exasperated.

"I haven't tried to open mine yet," Scott mumbled as he reached for his bag subconsciously.

"Don't," Seamus said holding his hand up. Then of course while everyone was looking at Scott's things, Seamus and Dean noticed Jax, who Scott had brought into the compartment with them.

"What is that?" Dean asked staring at the bird. The bird returned his stare only in a slightly more hateful way.

"This is Jax," Scott said holding his hand out dramatically as he introduced his owl.

"He looks mad," Seamus said.

"He probably is," Tom muttered.

Scott elbowed him and stuck his fingers between the bars of the cage to stroke Jax's head. To Tom's amazement Jax not only allowed him to do so, but leaned his head forward into Scott's hand. All the while the bird's beady eyes glared at the other three boys full of distrust.

"He's creepy," Dean told Scott.

"He knows you guys are talking about him," Scott said getting defensive once again. "I don't think he likes it when people start to make fun of him.

"Of course," Tom said sarcastically. "You clearly bought bird genius."

"You guys read the paper?" Seamus asked lowering his voice.

"On Sirius Black?" Scott asked with a nod.

"Yeah," Seamus said. "Can you believe it no one's ever gotten out of Azkaban before."

"I heard that they're worried he's going to show his face at Hogwarts," Seamus whispered.

"I don't think so," Tom cut in.

Again three pairs of eyes were him in curiosity. Scott was the only one of the three who knew about his trip to Azkaban and thus was the only one who understood that he was in Sirius' neighboring cell.

"I er… if I um was a death eater um… going towards Dumbledore wouldn't seem smart," Tom fabricated. In reality he just felt that Sirius wouldn't have any ties with anyone at Hogwarts, and he furthermore, he wouldn't harm anyone. Tom couldn't recall the exact wording, but he did vaguely remember Sirius saying something about how unjust it was to put a fourteen year old in Azkaban. That would imply he had morals, and murdering students wasn't exactly morally sound.

"He might be after Harry," Dean supplied. "The paper says he's a death eater. I'm pretty sure all of their lots want him dead."

"That makes sense," Scott mumbled. There was the slightest hint of fear in his friends voice as he spoke. Tom shrugged not wanting to go into too much detail about how he believed a known death eater innocent. He glanced out the window with a deep sigh. It was raining now, pouring actually.

The boys continued to chat for hours. Everything was going perfectly, they were simply students talking about things students do. Before long the sky was darkening- from the night not the rain- and the train lights flicked on. No doubt they would arrive soon.

That was when the train started to slow. Tom furrowed his eyebrows confused. He had heard trains were fast, but this was a bit too fast to be believable. He might have tried to check the window to see if the castle was visable, but the rain was falling faster now. He couldn't see five feet outside let alone all the way to the castle.

"What the heck are they doing?" Seamus asked slightly agitated. Apparently he wasn't the only one who thought they had arrived a bit early. Dean shrugged and stood to open the door sticking his head out into the hallway.

"Anything?" Tom asked his defenses coming up. He started metally arming himself for the wost. His wand was in his hand his Occlemency wall (Snape had taught him a few tricks last year) was up and running, and his senses reached out for anything to hold onto.

"Nope, but everyone…" Dean began. Then the train came to an abrupt screeching halt which flung Dean back into the compartment. "Sorry, sorry," He apologized immediately. Tom looked down sympathetically at Dean, but his eyes never found the other boy's face. The lights had flickered out and the boys were left in darkness. Tom felt a pit forming in his stomach. This darkness was all to familiar.

"Lumos," he said his voice quivering. A small light glowed from the tip of his wand illuminating their compartment.

"What's going on?" Scott asked clearly scared. Tom felt himself panicking. _No not here, they can't be here._

"I'm going to check out what's going on," Dean announced getting up from his previous spot on the ground. "How do you do that with your wand?"

Tom didn't answer instead he pushed the compartment door shut. "Better to stay in here," he mumbled positioning himself so that his wand was pointed at the door.

"Did you see that guys?" Scott mumbled.

"Bloody hell," Seamus said jumping onto the bench. "Something moved out there."

Tom's eyes darted to the window. A thin layer of frost formed on the glass, and Tom felt the chill move through him, in the most literal of ways. His time in Azkaban flashed before him and he felt his hands shaking violently. _They're here._

He looked around for something to barricade the doorway with. Why did they have to be here? He could only think of one reason, and he wasn't fond of that reason at all. Suddenly his grip on his wand became tighter. He was never going back there.

"What is it Tom?" Scott asked.

"Dementors," Tom said solemnly. The one word answer came out like a death sentence, short and final.

He then realized how final this situation actually was. Say the death eaters were here for him, how would he fight them? The reality was that he couldn't. He had learned many spells in his short life including all three unforgivable, and some wandless magic, but not once had he even attempted a patronus. The technique was foreign to him, and he knew he would never be able to cast it. It involved a level of happiness he had never dreamed of reaching.

Then without warning there was a flash of light coming from somewhere down the hall and the darkness left immediately. In one single wave the lights blared back to life. Tom stayed routed in place though, not yet willing to move.

"I think they're gone," Dean said. Tom glanced around still holding his wand up. Both Seamus and Dean were giving him an odd look. He lowered his wand cautiously, but only after he noticed the frost melting off the window. His heart beat slowed gradually and he sank back into his seat.

"W-why do you think they were here?" Scott stuttered.

"I bet they were looking for Sirius Black," Seamus said immediately.

"You think?" Dean mumbled thoughtfully. Tom tuned them out and sat down shakily. That was too close. Maybe they were there for Sirius, or something else, but regardless he couldn't go through that again. He would never be able to see one of them again.


End file.
